Bank will let iPhone users deposit checks via app
The privately owned bank and insurance carrier USAA will soon allow iPhone users to deposit checks just by taking iPhone photos of both sides and submitting them through their app.
In a very innovative move USAA, headquartered in San Antonio, will soon begin allowing customers with iPhones to skip standing in line at the bank to deposit checks, or even having to use the drive-up window. Instead, customer who have an iPhone will be able to use their iPhone cameras to take photos of both sides of their checks, then submit them through their USAA iPhone app.
Customers will not even have to submit those checks later, by mail or otherwise, for proof. Submission of the photos through the app will be enough, thank you very much. All you need is credit eligibility and some type of insurance policy with the company, according to a New York Times story. Wayne Peacock, an executive vice president of USAA, says “We’re essentially taking an image of the check, and once you hit the send button, that image is going into our deposit-taking system as any other check would. Mobile is going to be a bigger part of how people do commerce and how they interact with their financial institutions. The great value that we see is the time savings.”
It is a move that may make sense to both USAA and their 7 million customers. The only existing USAA branch is in San Antonio and their customers are spread all over the world. That is because USAA caters primarily to members of the United States military, though it’s services are available to anyone. The bank has been allowing members to deposit checks remotely using home scanners for about three years, a program that has paved the way for deposits via the iPhone app.
This is the sort of mobile technology use that many customers have been waiting for. This USAA app, and others like it, could realize the potential of time savings and convenience that all of us see in the smartphone. It will take some work on the security end to make programs like this one work safely, but these are the sorts of programs that users would like to see. Such innovations are what is necessary to truly take out lives into the mobile realm.
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August 15th, 2009
Bank will let iPhone users deposit checks via app is really nice post i have ever read. thanks for the post.